Sunday, January 30, 2011

I knew this day was coming. That it was inevitable. That it would just be a matter of time before I presented with a problem I knew I just wasn't ready to face. And yet I sat by and waited for it to happen. I should have prepared. How could I be so naive?

The day has come and now I pay the price...

I've begun to run out of space for video-games.

I've been managing to put this off for quite some time now by selling games that I no longer really cared for. But it could only last for so long. I am now facing a spacial issue and being the anol and organized person that I am this is a huge deal for me.

Next to my desk I have a a shelf piece that looks like an L that has been flipped vertically and then horizontally. Here's a picture.

As you can see, the shelf is divided up into different units of storage which I then fill up with games/books depending on the categories they fall into.

On top of the entire piece itself I have created a section for graphic novels/manga. I have Scott Pilgrim, Y: The Last Man, Scott Pilgrim, Kick-Ass, some Naruto and Death Note. I also have a really cool SP poster in vain of Street Fighter. The 3 shelves that run along from the top are all books. The first from the left are Artemis Fowls books and other novels that I throughly enjoy and do not belong in the closet i.e. House of Leaves, John Dies, Douglas Adams etc. The section to the right of that is Harry Potter which is self explanatory. It's the entire series in order. Then to the right of that is Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events which is also tight on space due to books that are part of the universe but not an installment in the series.

Once we get to that point, the shelf then descend into a column of games. From top to bottom the games are ordered: PS3, Wii, DS, Misc. The Misc. section is just for games that I like to keep close but really don't fit elsewhere. More than half of it is PS2 games but there is some Gamecube and PSP thrown in there. I have room room for like 4 more Wii games and I wouldn't mind departing with or shelving 1 or 2 games there so I'm not concerned and I actually ran out of space for DS games some time ago but the cases are small so I found a way to keep them together that isn't really ideal for me but it will have to do. This method is the first thing I tried with my PS3 games but the cases are too tall.

So that bring us to the PS3 shelf. I just ran out of space when I bought LBP2 and Dead Space 2 this month. There are more PS3 games inbound this year so I'm seriously screwed if I don't find a way to organize this. I'm afraid I'll have to start putting things into... the closet.

Or I could just put stuff from Misc. onto my 2 shelves of gaming paraphernalia. I could have a nice little shrine for my Kingdom Hearts games and with the 3DS coming out I can actually put all my DS games away somewhere and I won't feel the pain as much.

All I know, is that some serious organizing is in order. I've also considered just putting all my books away and having only videogames on my shelf. But my mind somehow connects that to loss of character so I don't know how I feel about that. I don't really want 2 shelves of PS3 game either. Ugh...

I know I'll figure out. It may take some compromise but I'll come to a decision.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Well, I was going to write a post about videogames and January and the fun that was sure to await me and I was going to talk about the new Kingdom Hearts game I got for my DS today. But then bad things happened. So this post will go down a much more sullen path.

So for a while now the right shoulder button on my DSi hasn't worked. This is a pretty standard issue for pretty much all generations of this console. I myself experienced on my DS Lite but I can' remember if it fixed itself or not. So anyway, I recently became more involved with my DSi and the games I have yet to finish in anticipation of the 3DS- which I reserved the other day- and in this process the shoulder button was really getting on my nerves. Navigating menus was cumbersome and in some cases crucial functions were but a fleeting dream. So my first thought is to buy some compressed air in hopes that maybe there is just some dirt trapped in the crevices. So today I got some and unfortunately that didn't work. The air just wasn't working it's way in there. So the next idea I had was to use rubbing alcohol. I called my mom in to help me out. So she goes to grab some rubbing alcohol. I will now transcribe the events that unfolded.

Me: Ok, Mom. Use a dripper or something because we only need a few drops in-between the crevice.

My mom cooperates and uses a tiny dripper and we squirt the rubbing alcohol into the side of the shoulder button. It wasn't as precise as I had hoped but some definitely worked it's way in. After cleaning off the rest and clicking the button a couple of times I turn it on and it works! Woohoo!

My mom then proceeds to snatch the system out of my hands and starts to pour rubbing alcohol all over the top and bottom screens.

Me: Mom, stop! You can't put that much you're going to damage it!

My mom had plenty of time to stop but it's like in a bad dream when you're yelling at someone but they can't hear you.

Me: Mom! Stop! Stop! What are you doing?!

My mom has at this point drenched the whole thing in rubbing alcohol and begins to rub it in with paper towels.

I quickly took the DSi away from her and turned it on to made sure it worked. The shoulder button was working. I was happy. I then returned to my private quarters to get back into Kingdom Hearts, this time with a proper handling of the camera system.

No. That is not what happened. That shit backfired. Hard. Now the shoulder button only works when it wants to and when it does the system menu bricks and Kingdom Hearts takes me to the main menu and then I can't go anywhere from there. At first I thought the game was broken and I wanted to die but then I tried 358/2 Days and it doesn't work either so it's just the system because Pokemon works just fine.

This was supposed to be a good day damn it! I am so distressed. Writing about it helps though. I'll just borrow my friends DSi and beat Kingdom Hearts. Yeah. It'll be okay.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Oh, man! What a great Thursday! I only had rehearsal for Wednesday so the rest of the week is totally chill. I mean, if you decide to neglect most of the responsibilities that come with my classes it is.

English class is freaking awesome right now. We're in the middle of reading A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway and I'm really digging it. Before this we glossed over Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain and we went really in depth with The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Now, being a fan of literature, I can appreciate works like Pudd'nhead and Scarlet Letter on a certain level but the writing is really daunting. Hawthorne's more than anything. Then here comes along Hemingway with a fresh and straightforward story and character. It's great. Everything he writes is completely blunt and repetitive and it drones on and on and it's through his lack of flourish that he is able to tell a story differently from any other literature at his time.

Hemingway is part of a group called "The Lost Generation". This pretty much ran from the 1920-30's. Essentially it was the sign of an age where people of great intellect were overcoming the ideas of American labor. The daily routine of work a 9-to-5 job to support your family was not acceptable for them. They looked beyond their restraints and sulked in their depression at being stuck in a world where so few shared their same outlook. This all comes into place with the concept of existentialism. It's the philosophy of why anybody is who they are at a specific time and why. It also delves into the concepts of human individuality and one's purpose in life. A lot of this came out of post-WWI discussions. Which is the setting of A Farewell to Arms.

So these are the topics that we were discussing today in class. Before today I already had an interest in the ideas associated with existentialism. Not too come across as pretentious or anything but I often myself being lost in my thoughts as to why anything really is rather than keeping my sights set on just making sure it gets done. This isn't necessarily a positive attribute because in the eyes of the rest of the world this would appear as just a common slacker. In the Greek myth of Sisyphus this is referred to as the "absurd hero". Sisyphus, who lives in the underworld, defies the laws of his nature/existence and is condemned by the gods to an endless torture of rolling a boulder to the top of a mountain only to have it fall back down. Yet through his punishment, Sisyphus gains a new view on the world he used to belong to and becomes conscious of his situation. He does not want to go back to his old life because he now realizes that it wasn't the life he ever wanted. So his eternal punishment becomes his greatest gift as he now has grander view on life than anybody that is till trapped within their lives. So this knowledge brings him happiness, but what does he really gain? The truth can often times bring a pain greater than what our realities may hold for us. So did Sisyphus really win? What is our reality but what we make of it.

Existentialism really is an amazing philosophy.It questions our very humanity. I feel like I have a strong connection to the idea and even Hemingway himself. I'm nowhere near as adventurous as him but my writing more often than not has a very flat and direct tone to it. I recently wrote a short story for my english class that I'm pretty proud of. Maybe I'll share it later.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Hey... it's been a while. How are you? Oh, that's good to hear. Yeah, um, I've been good... so, hey, I know I haven't posted in like, what, 4 months? But you know I would never leave you without good reason! So why don't we just pretend like I was here the entire time and we can move on with our lives. Okay. Good.

So new year, new posts. I guess a good resolution would be to write more and with some consistency as well. Last time I posted it was the first day of school followed by total silence. I'm pretty sure the situation is self explanatory.

So on the school side of things, I'm kinda getting my ass kicked by classes. I'm taking two mind-wrenching- to me at least- math classes and on top of that of that I have two college level courses for English and History. I really fucking hate mathematics so yeah I'm planning on easing up on that next year. But I do love English and I can tolerate History but the work sometimes is just bullshit but I get to learn about a lot of historically significant topics i.e. wars and famous literature. The literature is more fun.

I'm also taking Italian 1. The teacher is pretty damn out there so it makes the class a nuisance but I'm learning a 3rd language so I feel cultured at the end of the day. I'd like to learn to speak French and German some day.

I've also become more involved in extra-curricular activities. In my journey to become an actor I have taken up a position in my school's drama department. I've made some pretty great friends and I'm getting to work on my acting. It's been going pretty well. We're doing a play for the first week of February entitled "The Man Who Came to Dinner". I play the role of Beverly Carlton, a very famous, very british, and extremely flamboyant actor. It's my first real role I guess we could say.

Then between school there is a bunch of stuff sprinkled in-between. I bought some games, I bought some movies, I saw some movies. I'm enjoying my youth.

I just recently made it a priority to invest some time into Anime. I've always been captivated by the stuff but I never really devote any time to it. Well, I just finished watching a series called "Ouran High School Host Club". I really adore it. I'm a huge sucker for high-school/slice-of-life type settings. It only ran for one season and doesn't go through the rest of the story that's depicted in the manga so I'm strongly considering reading it now. After that I started watching Fullmetal Alchemist and of course it's incredible. I have a lot on my plate if I keep this trend going.

On the topic of television shows, I pretty much had to abandon every show that I watch except for Community due to rough schoolwork schedules. Sucks. But I'm getting by!

So I think that's it for now. Sorry if this post was less than riveting but I just wanted to make sure we're all up to speed. I really want to write more here and with less restraint even if it means just popping with tiny little blurbs. So yeah we have a full year to look forward to together. Let's make the most of it!

P.S. For who it interests I'm gonna put up a link on the side somewhere here to my Tumblr and Twitter just in case you want to make sure you read every tiny thought that escapes my mind.

Hello internet, my name is Mario. What's yours?

I go to school but I do a bunch of wacky shit on the side. I like films, comic books and the like. You get the idea I'm sure. I'm aspiring to work in the film industry someday. Ideally Id like to be an actor and a screenwriter. So yeah, snoop around. I hope you find everything to your liking.